SEC Football: Bowl Agreement with Big 12 Will Be Inconsequential on the Field

Alabama and Texas met in the 2010 BCS Championship Game following the 2009 seasonStephen Dunn/Getty Images

The SEC and Big 12 are hard at work securing spots for their teams outside of a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) four-team playoff.

The SEC and Big 12 announced on Friday that the two teams will meet in a New Year's Day prime-time bowl game for its conference champions should they not be selected to participate in a four-team playoff. If one or both conferences are represented in the four-team playoff, other teams from the conferences will be selected.

"This new game will provide a great match-up between the two most successful conferences in the BCS era and will complement the exciting post-season atmosphere created by the new four-team model," said SEC commissioner Mike Slive in a release. "Most importantly, it will provide our student-athletes, coaches and fans with an outstanding bowl experience.”

Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman reported on his Twitter account that the event could take place in Arlington, Texas at Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

I'm told the meeting between the SEC and Big 12 champions would probably take place at Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

It's nice to have that as a backup plan and coupled with the agreement between the Pac-12 and Big Ten, it consolidates power among the top four conferences. But how often will it come in to play?

Since the first season of the BCS in 1998, there has never been a season where both the SEC and Big 12 finish outside of the top four. The 2001 season was the only year in which current SEC and Big 12 members finished outside of the top four, but Nebraska and Colorado finished No. 2 and No. 3 that season. Both were members of the Big 12 at the time.

The method in which the participants of the four-team playoff still needs to be ironed out, but the likelihood of both the Big 12 and SEC being left out of the event is about as likely as Craig James winning an election.

Zero.

So essentially, the new bowl is a shinier version of the Cotton Bowl and replaces the Capital One Bowl as the top non-BCS bowl game in the SEC's pecking order.

It's nice that this agreement exists, but it will likely be inconsequential in terms of on-the-field impact.

It does, however, signify that the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 are separating themselves from the rest of FBS, which is another step towards the era of super-conferences.